The energy efficiency services market provides purchase incentives to end consumers to undertake projects that reduce energy consumption. Such projects may typically involve the purchase of new and more efficient equipment to replace existing and in-use equipment, or to retrofit the existing and in-use equipment. The term “equipment” as used throughout this disclosure, unless indicated otherwise, refers to electrical, electronic, or gas-based equipment that consumes energy directly, or indirectly, in any form from an energy source. Indirect energy consumption is obtained by certain equipment, such as white roof that reduces the burden on energy consuming equipment. Exemplary equipment include heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning (HVAC) systems—including custom HVAC equipment and controls, prescriptive HVAC equipment and controls, custom HVAC variable frequency drives (VFDs) and prescriptive VFDs, custom process VFDs; prescriptive strip curtains; motors; commercial refrigerators and freezers; ice machines; steam cookers; water heaters; pre-rinse sprayers; vending equipment; laundry equipment; strip plug outlets; hot food holding cabinets; commercial fryers; ovens; griddles; anti-sweat heat controls; window films; copying machines; lighting systems—including custom lighting, or prescriptive lighting; residential appliances—including fans, residential HVACs, washers, dryers, dishwashers, etc.; industrial equipment; heavy machinery; automated systems; computers; network systems; solar systems; cool roof; process steam equipment; and steam traps.
An energy source typically includes one or more of renewable or nonrenewable energy sources, including direct energy from a battery, gas sources, a solar cell architecture, or wind farm; or indirect energy from a regular transmission line, drawing from a power station, using a local utility company. Such equipment may include components. The term “component” as used throughout this disclosure, unless indicated otherwise, refers to parts within the equipment that is independently configured to consume energy, directly or indirectly. As an example, a computer equipment includes a memory drive component. The memory drive component is typically a solid-state semiconductor chip or a rotating disk drive, both of which consume electrical energy for purposes of storage and delivery of information. Typically, the sum total of energy consumption by various components within an equipment is the energy consumed by the equipment.
A purchase incentive typically applies to replacement of existing equipment, such that the benefits of reduced energy usage costs, as well as any other subsidy provided by an entity may be realized. The term “entity,” as used throughout this disclosure, unless indicated otherwise, refers to an organization or individual offering a subsidy, such as an equipment manufacturer, a utilities service provider, or a government entity. Purchase incentives are typically available for replacement or retrofitting processes, generally referred to as “projects,” in this disclosure. Typical projects available to the energy efficiency services market, include replacement of failed equipment, retrofitting of exiting equipment, or process improvement projects. In this disclosure, one or more methodologies for calculating energy savings obtained when equipment is replaced by energy-efficient alternative equipment are referred to as a “program” or an “enrollment program.” Such enrollment programs are typically implemented by the end-user's utility service-provider, an equipment manufacturer, or a government agency. The utility service-provider, equipment manufacturer, or government agency offering such enrollment programs are referred to, throughout this disclosure, as “entities.”
Such programs are often implemented via implementation contractors, such as an “Energy Efficiency Services” group operating in the energy efficiency services market. In this role, implementation contractors typically evaluate the energy savings for all projects, as precisely as possible, to ensure that the proper purchase incentives are applied and appropriate energy savings are counted toward an enrollment program's goal.
Proper estimation of the energy savings and validation of the eligibility prescribed measures for one or more equipment in an enrollment program is a typical problem in the energy efficiency services market. Unlike a typical product-oriented rebate program, where purchase incentives are directly applied to a customer, when the customer sends a Universal Product Code (UPC) label off the package to the manufacturer; in a service-oriented program, such as energy services, the energy consumed by an equipment is variable and depends on a lot of factors. Energy consumption may not only depend on the many possible configurations of the equipment, but also on the environment in which it is used.
Engineering reviews are often initiated by an end-user and cost more than the value of the purchase incentive offered by the service provider. Such engineering reviews are manually constrained and may also delay the start of construction of a project within an enrollment program. These factors have led to reduced participation in the engineering review process that result in imprecise savings and inequitable distribution of purchase incentives. A prescriptive approach to engineering review may apply assumptions that have, over time, become unacceptable due to the variables in the location of the equipment, leading to increasingly complicated requirements. Such prescriptive approaches rival the complexity of a custom program with an engineering review approach.